Short Stories

While waiting for my next Canada Reads selection to come in to the library, I finally got a chance to read one of my Christmas books. I decided to go with something short and sweet and chose Poirot's Early Cases by Agatha Christie.

This is a selection of short stories featuring Christie's master detective and his loyal friend Captain Hastings. They are cases from the beginning point of Poirot's career in England (and a few from his time in Belgium) and before Hastings moves to Argentina. They recount Poirot's early successes in England. Most of the stories deal with murder, but there are a few robberies thrown into the mix.

I have previously written that I don't like short stories. And, usually, I don't - or at least I don't choose to read them all that often, which isn't really quite the same thing. However, I do enjoy Christie's mystery short stories. You can read a bunch before bed without getting scared: the mystery is solved quickly and you don't have to finish the whole book before you go to sleep. They're also good reading on the bus because you can polish off a few on your journey but not have to stop in the middle of an exciting chapter.

These are quite enjoyable stories from Christie. Her debt to Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle is seen clearly here, as the stories read very much like the Holmes/Watson stories with Poirot and Hastings rooming together in London, solving crimes. Of course, Poirot and Holmes are quite different detectives. Poirot's career began during World War One and Holmes' career ended about this time. I wonder if any writer is brave enough to try and tackle these literary behemoths in one story!

It is here, too, in a short story that we meet Poirot's Irene Adler: the Russian countess Vera Rosakoff. She stars in the story "The Double Clue". Other stories that involve theft instead of murder are "The Adventure of Johnny Waverly" and "The Submarine Plans". Mysteries involving a theft can be just as convoluted as murder mysteries, and it is nice to see Poirot turn his talents here, for a change. A theft is probably not enough plot to hang a novel-length mystery on, but it suits the quick pace of a short story. We also learn about one of Poirot's early cases in Belgium that very nearly ended in disaster in "The Chocolate Box". An interesting case is "Wasps' Nest", in which Poirot uses his talents to solve a murder before it happens.

These stories are classic Christie and are a must for any serious Christie collector. Now that I seem to have most of her Poirot and Marple novels, I will start on collecting her short story collections. This is hopefully only the first of many.